The Tibet Autonomous Region government will spend six billion yuan (about 857 million U.S. dollars) on the construction of highways across the plateau region this year, said an official with the regional government on Saturday.

Zhao Shijun, head of the regional bureau of communications, said that the new highways built in 2008 brought the region's total road length to 51,000 km.

So far, highways and roads have reached 95 percent of the 682 townships and 80 percent of the 5,261 villages across the region, the official said.

The region will invest the six billion yuan to build highways to give 19 counties and 213 villages easier access to the outside world, said Zhao.

Tibet will also start to build a highway linking its capital Lhasa and the Gonggar Airport in the first half of 2009.

(Xinhua News Agency February 21, 2009)